Mount Diablo High School Discovers Success with the Digital Safari Multimedia Academy. (Applications)

In 1995, Mount Diablo Unified School District in Concord, Calif., received one of nine Integration Grants from U.S. Department of Education. The grant was for a demonstration project aimed at integrating vocational and academic education. Through a competitive process within district, Mount Diablo High School was selected as site for project. Mount Diablo High is an underperforming, minority-majority school -- not necessarily most likely spot for a successful high-tech/academic program. Six years later, Digital Safari Multimedia Academy is now a nationally recognized, highly successful model for integration of new vocational curriculum and core academics. As one of teachers who worked on project, I have come to realize that it's not just advanced equipment and software, but small learning community environment that is real key to our success. We envisioned a learning environment where students and teachers could work together to form a supportive learning community in which individuals were nurtured while being encouraged to explore, and to take intellectual and creative risks that lead to self-discovery. We wanted to provide students with academic and intellectual skills they would need to succeed in college or other pursuits. We also wanted to teach students team-building skills they would need in a real business environment. This meant providing students with experience in using professional multimedia design tools. A School Within a School The Digital Safari Multimedia Academy is a two-year sequence of courses for 11th- and 12th-graders. Juniors in Academy take U.S. history, English, earth science and multimedia. Seniors take U.S. government, economics, English and two multimedia courses. A fourth skills-based multimedia elective, called digital safari design, is run just like a small multimedia development company in which students work with outside clients in a realistic business environment. The Academy's four teachers and 100-115 students create a small community atmosphere that fosters a very different relationship between teachers and students, as well as among students themselves. It's a collegial feeling in which everyone helps and encourages everyone else. This nurturing environment causes students, who were once uninterested in school, to develop a renewed commitment to education and success. These students develop a sense of ownership in program, paving way to much greater success for all involved. The focal point of Academy is lab: a 30'x 60' room filled with 35 advanced Apple computers. We have 20 iMac DV Special Editions, 10 G4 towers, two G3 PowerBooks, three iBooks and an LCD projector. This technology-rich environment also includes digital scanners; a large format black-and-white laser printer and a color laser printer; four Sony Mavica digital still cameras; and two Canon ZR-20 digital video cameras. The lab consists of 20 computers on one side and 10 on perimeter of other side, along with the pit in middle -- a group of eight comfortable chairs around a low 4' x 6' worktable that is instrumental for storyboarding and collaboration. I believe way we teach multimedia is one of things that makes us different. We use integrated projects from our academic classes to teach high-quality multimedia skills utilizing professional standard tools. These tools include most of Macromedia suite of products, such as Director 8.5, Dreamweaver 4, Flash 5, Fireworks 4, FreeHand 10 and SoundEdit 16. All of our courses are taught using board of education-approved curriculum and California's state academic standards. …